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Show -5- Indian Service Administers War Relocation Center One of the major war connected tasks of the Service had to do with the evacuation and relocation of Japanese from the West coast. Even before the creation of the War Relocation Authority, the assistance of the Indian Service was sought in the handling of this problem. Within a few days after the creation of the WRA arrangements had been made to utilize a portion of the Colorado River Indian Reservation in western Arizona, upon which to locate some 20,000 evacuees. This project, the largest of all the centers established to handle evacuees, is being administered entirely by the Indian Service under an agreement with the War Relocation Authority. There are approximately 1,200 Mojave and Chemehuevi Indians living at the northern end of the reservation. They have irrigated and cultivated some 8,000 acres of land by pumping water from the Colorado River. Several years ago the Indian Service planned the subjugation of approximately 100,000 acres of land within the boundaries of this reservation lying along the eastern bank of the Colorado. Inasmuch as the resident Indians could use not more than 15,000 or 20,000 acres, it was planned over a period of approximately 15 years to colonize on the newly developed land Indians from other reservations, such as the Navajo, Hopi, and Papago, where land resources are utterly inadequate to meet the needs of the existing population. In 1942, the Indian Service completed the construction of a diversion dam across the river. In May, the main canal from the dam was connected with the irrigation system used by the Indians, substituting gravity water for the water previously pumped. |
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Original book: [State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California, defendants, United States of America, State of Nevada, State of New Mexico, State of Utah, interveners] : California exhibits. |